The Rings of Power is an invaluable example of what happens when someone ignores basic writing principles.
By: Joseph Leon
Over the approximate nine hours of my life taken by this show the feeling I was the most overcome with, other than boredom, was disappointment. You would think that an entry in such a beloved series would be handled with more care. But what I watched was an absolute slog of a show that disrespects the source material by daring to exist. I will be going over ROP’s abysmal character writing, mind-boggling plot contrivances, and nonexistent world building and how this trifecta of failure amounts to the sorry product I have had the displeasure of watching.
To save time, I’ll only use two examples of total character failure because if I listed them all this article would be six pages long. First off, Galadriel, whose problems are most obvious and irritating. Basically, Galadriel is an experienced commander on a revenge quest to kill Sauron for killing her brother, regardless of the toll on herself and the people around her. This seems like the perfect setup for a great anti heroine She may be the most petulant, arrogant, gaslighting, turd stain of a person you may ever see. For the entire time she is on the screen she is unapologetically, unempathetically, pushing people who slightly disagree with her aside while walking around demanding respect from everyone she comes in contact with. All she does is belittle the people around her, expecting no negative consequences for her actions. I believe that these things alone would not be a problem, I think the best characters are the ones with the most flaws. What matters is how the story makes them pay for those flaws.
Usually, when a character has overbearingly negative traits, they pay for those traits and either develop as a character, or die if you want to be Shakespearean about it. The writers choose to do neither, in fact, they do the exact opposite and treat these traits as if they were positive. Galadriel’s behavior never backfires on her in any way or at least not in any way that directly affects her. She is only ever called out for her behavior twice I think, it either doesn’t matter or the person doing it is framed as being in the wrong. In the end, no matter the situation she gets exactly what she wants and everyone loves her for it. Even if they should logically hate her guts. Her promising concept isn’t the only thing wasted by this show.
Another big issue is that the plot is almost completely centered around Galadriel. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, as she is the protagonist, but this leaves all of the other characters with a criminal lack of agencies. No one other than Galadriel accomplishes anything, develops at all, or does anything remotely interesting. I’ll use Elrond as an example and keep it brief. In the first episode, Elrond is played up to be many interesting things. A talented writer; he is shown writing the high king’s speech. A shrewd statesman; through comments made by other characters. An aspiring craftsman; as part of the plot, he is sent to aid Celebrimbor (an esteemed elven smith and architect) with a “project”(it's very vague in the show and remains vague until the last few episodes but we are told that it is super special and very important and only he can do it because he is a special boy). Does he do anything with these presumed skills? No. Anything with his writing? No. Anything as a craftsman? No, In the broader context of the show he has zero reasons to be in the position he is in. For all we know he is just a random guy. He has no importance to the plot other than he asks the dwarves for help with the “project”, after that the plot just has him do whatever it needs him to do. None of his decisions feel like his own, probably because these monkeys with typewriters forgot to write a character to base them off of.